overview

What You Can Expect At A Club Meeting

Our club generally meets every 2nd and 4th Thursday of each month at 7pm. Unless we have a special event (e.g., club contests, holiday gatherings, etc), our meetings are typically conducted in the following format. Guests who visit our club often first comment on our level of professionalism, organization, and friendliness.  These are the qualities we value and seek to obtain at every club meeting! 

Meeting Segments:

Every Toastmaster meeting at our club is divided into three segments.

I. Prepared Speeches. The speaking program is the center of every Toastmasters meeting. Speakers use the guidelines in their Pathways project to fully prepare their presentations.

II. Evaluations. People join Toastmasters to improve their speaking and leadership skills, and these skills are improved with the help of evaluations. This is the most important aspect of Toastmasters as you are able to receive immediate feedback for your speech in a helpful and supportive way so that you can further accomplish your speaking goals. 

III. Table Topics. In this final segment, the Table Topics Master gives members who aren’t assigned a speaking role the opportunity to speak during the meeting. The Table Topics Master challenges each member with a topical question and the speaker responds with a one to two minute impromptu response.

Meeting Roles & Functionaries:

In every meeting, we have the opportunity to sign up for a challenging roles that will not only help us keep our program orderly and moving on time, but allow us to improve our listening and communication skills.

Toastmaster
The Toastmaster is the meeting’s director and genial host for the evening. He or she will conduct the entire evening's program, including introducing participants and ensuring that the meeting runs smoothly. You won’t usually be assigned this role until you are thoroughly familiar with the club and its procedures.

Table Topics Master
The Table Topics Master provides the theme for the evening and prepares a list of impromptu questions to give members who aren’t assigned a speaking role a chance to speak. 

General Evaluator
The General Evaluator conducts the evaluation portion of the meeting and is responsible for the evaluation team: the speech Evaluators, Ah Counter, Grammarian and Timer. Additionally, he or she takes notes during the meeting to evaluate the club meeting on its timeliness, enthusiasm, preparation, organization, and performance of duties so that we may continue to improve each meeting.

Grammarian
One benefit of Toastmasters is that it helps people improve their grammar and word usage. The Grammarian's responsibility is to introduce a new word or a seldom used but challenging word to members and encourage them to use it throughout the meeting. 

Ah Counter
The purpose of the Ah Counter is to note any word or sound used as a crutch by anyone who speaks during the meeting. Words may be inappropriate interjections such as and, well, but, so and you know. Sounds may be ah, um or er. This helps us be mindful of any filler words that are distracting and it helps us refine the way in which we convey our speech.

Timer
One of the skills Toastmasters practice is the expression of thought within a specific amount of time. As the Timer, you would be responsible for monitoring time for each meeting segment and for each speaker. You’ll also operate the timing signal, indicating to each speaker how long he or she has been speaking.

Trophy Master
Within each segment - the Prepared Speeches, Evaluations, and Table Topics - we have the opportunity to vote for the best speakers. The duty of the Trophy Master is to privately collect votes and tally them. At the end of each meeting, we then have an Awards segment in which the Trophy Master presents an award to the best speaker, evaluator, and table topics speaker.

Jokemaster
The purpose of the Joke Master is to entertain the audience while our members are filling out their ballots and the Trophy Master is collecting their votes.